Are our DVD collections worthless?

I've been pondering this lately... I must have easily spent around $8,000 on DVD's over the years building up an enormous library of catalogue titles and sets. Due to space issues in my flat, I've had my entire collection boxed up for the better part of the past year and have found that I've not watched any DVD's in a very long time.

Right now I'm inbetween jobs and having a bit of financial difficulty and have considered selling my entire collection as a lot sale. However the more I look into this, the more I realize how ridiculously deprciated these plastic discs have become! I'm sure that if I were to bring them to any retail store, I might get offered $600 for them.

What are your thoughts on this?

How much do you think one could reasonably get for an extensive collection of classic catalgoue titles, Criterions, animation titles, etc. nearing the 800 numbers? Any tips for selling a decent sized collection for reasonable value?

You must've had a reason for amasing such a large collection in the first place. If you sell them all I think you will later regret it. Sell SOME of them that you don't watch or didn't like. But selling all of them is very risky. You'll probably regret it, and then spend the next few years buying many of your favourite titles back.

For the hours of amusement and enrichment given us, DVDs are priceless--but they're not much of an investment vehicle. And if we are heading to a streaming model (I just switched to Netflix Instant Streaming today, bye bye red envelopes) the less value-added titles will be valueless quicker than we might anticipate. I've/we've been there before, with VHS and LD.

I also downgraded my Netflix membership to streaming only today. We've had the same three blu-rays sitting here for two months, but we've been streaming like crazy. Plus, they were gonna raise my monthly rate to $23.99. Screw that.

I've walked the need money/sell discs/buy discs again road many, many times over the years. It's like a never-ending cycle, and it sucks. I've finally stopped re-buying titles, and I've restricted my purchases to titles that I would never sell no matter what. As you can imagine, I'm buying a LOT less titles these days.

Thanks guys... obviously I'd prefer NOT to sell them. But right now in my life I hardly get much viewing out of them and if I were able to get a reasonable value for the collection, it'd be more useful to me than the films on disc, which can always be duped or revisited in some other medium or form in future. It's just that right now I simply don't care as much about the "collecting product" aspect as I did when the novelty of DVDs were fresh and I could afford all the latest exciting arthouse, b-grade and classic releases that hadn't existed prior on home video. That's worn off and I simply care about the films themselves now... there's always ways to see them without owning hundreds or even thousands of DVDs. It's just sort of disheartening to consider that these products could diminish so quickly in value to the point that a $25 release in retail shelf-like condition would not be considered for more than $4 anymore. That's a huge investment... I wonder what people who've taken fire or theft insurance out on homes would get quoted from companies for their collections. Of course the entertainment value and time spent sharing favorite or obscure titles with friends far outweighs the financial end, but with digital streaming on demand and an entire new industry approach to home video.. it doesn't make as much sense to me to keep my collection if I'm getting little use out of it and stuck in a financial rut. Then again, if it's going to be worthless in terms of dollars value, I'll hang on to them. But I wonder how much a 700-800 library of titles would even go for nowadays?

Well, if you really, really need the money, and it comes down to either keeping the movies you don't want or needing to put food on the table, I think, the decision is a no brainer. I was almost in that situtation many years ago, and I decided to hit the three genres that were expendable, my comedies, my action/suspense flicks, and my anime. I just refuse to part with all my horror and science fiction titles, and my DC/Animated stuff. Anyhow, years later, when finances got more stable, I regretted selling some of those titles, and in the intervening years have reaquired many of them, in all three genres. Not all, mind, you, but the ones that count. I still need to get a hold of the LAST ACTION HERO.

i, myself am sort of in the same situation, the job market isn't the best, and starting over, after 24 years of having the same thing is hard, i find that i cycle through mine as needed and take them to a local shop, i have bought there enough that i get a little better deal when i am selling, if you have some local spots check them out, you cant just dump a large set , but with black friday up comming even the second hand shops are going to need stuff for the shelves,

I hope things turn around for you my friend, i hope it turns around for a lot of us all

I only sell DVDs when I no longer want the movie or upgrade to the Blu-Ray or a better DVD re-release when it exists. I usually get a couple bucks each by selling them to used book stores, but they're often swamped with merchandise they have trouble selling.

I found a record store that bought a lot of my old laserdiscs for pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, I couldn't even get pennies on the dollar for any of my VHS collection that I spent 20 years building up, which includes many original Disney issues. They were donated to the thrift stores.

Enough is enough, Disney. No more evasions or excuses. We DEMAND the release Song of the South on Blu-ray along with the uncut version of Bedknobs and Broomsticks on Blu-ray. I am going to boycott The Walt Disney Company until then. And while you're at it, PLEASE stop dropping DVD/laserdisc extras from Blu-ray releases of other films.

If you must sell, check to see if any of your collection is way out of print or rare. Criterions go out of print all the time. Ebay is a good place to search. Even some Laserdiscs are still sought after today if they've never been released on DVD. Not everything will come out again on Blu Ray.

Otherwise, you're at the mercy of a shop owner as to whether you're getting fair market value.

Look at your collection judiciously. I sold the laser disc of THE BOY FRIEND just a few months ago for around $25. I sold about a dozen laser discs of MGM and Warner musicals I had on DVD and basically cleared a dollar per disc, that was very depressing. On the other had, I will not sell my laser disc of Li Li - which should have been released years ago on pressed dvd but if it comes out now my guess is it will end up in the Archive.

If you must sell, check to see if any of your collection is way out of print or rare. Criterions go out of print all the time. Ebay is a good place to search. Even some Laserdiscs are still sought after today if they've never been released on DVD. Not everything will come out again on Blu Ray.

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This is a very good point. Some DVDs will soon become much sought after rarities because in today's situation they are not going to be re-issued. Ever. The second hand market will then prevail and if a particular title is not dumped by the original purchasers, it will be hard to find and the price will go up. Which DVDs will become rare and valuable? I have no idea!

If you must sell, check to see if any of your collection is way out of print or rare. Criterions go out of print all the time. Ebay is a good place to search. Even some Laserdiscs are still sought after today if they've never been released on DVD. Not everything will come out again on Blu Ray.

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This is a very good point. Some DVDs will soon become much sought after rarities because in today's situation they are not going to be re-issued. Ever. The second hand market will then prevail and if a particular title is not dumped by the original purchasers, it will be hard to find and the price will go up. Which DVDs will become rare and valuable? I have no idea!

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The MGM/Amazon MOD-DVD of THE HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS is already listed on Amazon as going for $59.99 since it has been discontinued. That is almost a 200% increase in the price since I purchased it for $17.99 back in the summer. If you have any of the Anchor Bay product that has not been released under different labels, those too are getting high prices. The same will hold true for the Harry Novak film that were released under Something Weird Video/Image since the contract with Mr. Novak was not renewed.

"Get a director and a writer and leave them alone. That`s how the best pictures get made" - William "Wild Bill" Wellman

Wait a minute. An MOD title -- "discontinued"? WTF was the concept of MOD, again?

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I think the problem was the transfer was hideous, and it was one of the worst, that sales quickly dropped and they pulled it. They did the same thing with The Offense, but the transfer was good on this one. Neither title say discontinued, but Not Available At This Time.

"Get a director and a writer and leave them alone. That`s how the best pictures get made" - William "Wild Bill" Wellman

Originally Posted by ahollis I think the problem was the transfer was hideous, and it was one of the worst, that sales quickly dropped and they pulled it. They did the same thing with The Offense, but the transfer was good on this one. Neither title say discontinued, but Not Available At This Time.

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This is what I heard on the "digital" grapevine, too. Here's DVDDrive-In's review of it, and it ain't a pretty one. For the transfer, I mean. Click here.

As far as the worth of our collections goes- yeah, I have a lot of money sunk into DVDs, Bds, and general HT stuff over the last decade too. One of the foolish notions I've used to justify the purchases has been the thought that if times ever got bad, at least I would have plenty of entertainment. It took me a while to learn it doesn't work that way.

I would suggest, since you may have some time on your hands right now, going through and inventorying what you have. A lot of the mass market blockbusters and new releases of recent vintage are worthless now.

I recently took a copy of the Criterion edition of Traffic, still sealed in shrinkwrap, to a half price bookstore in Dallas.

The most they offered me for it was $2.

OTOH, there is a lot of stuff out of print that is still desirable and will fetch a premium over what you probably paid originally for. Things in the horror, sci-fi, action genres especially, though far from exclusively.

The least amount of hassle would be selling off the stuff as one lot. That's also going to be the least amount you'll get for it. If you want to take the time to go through and weed out the rarities, and sell them off individually, you can maximize the value of what you have. In your situation, I would definitely suggest selling on Amazon Marketplace.

You set your own price, and can leave it sitting there forever , as far as I know, until someone actually buys it.

Amazon takes a higher percentage, but it is far less hassle than time constrained auctions on ebay.

As others have said, the transition to streaming and downloads are going to create even more value in OoP hard copies- although I happen to think this window of opportunity is going to be extremely limited. At some point in the not too distant future (say 10 years at most) streaming and downloads will become so ubiquitous, that any physical media is going to be seen as wasteful and unnecessary. And all these now rare and OoP titles will be easily available to watch anytime, along with hundreds of others that never even got a physical release.

"And all these now rare and OoP titles will be easily available to watch anytime, along with hundreds of others that never even got a physical release"--Point taken, but I would say "may be available to watch anytime," as there's no guarantee anyone will stream them. Physical media will always some value, however limited, for years to come; I have 25-year-old VHS tapes with movies that have yet to resurface.